July 30, 2009

When we were first offered to work on this project with Bryan Davis, my first reaction was "That's disgusting!" It's about a sea of rats and an office full of what Kate politely referred to as "yuck" and me I was thinking something closer to this. But once we really embraced it... figuratively of course... questions came up: Are rats wet or dry? What PMS number is bile? What does a keyboard look like if you dip it in battery acid? Does sulphuric acid cause a carpet to catch on fire? So you start looking for reference... from chemical spills, to college binge drinking to exploding laptops, just to discover... these textures are amazing! And really nothing quite like what you expect when you get started. The other fun part of accepting this challenge is shooting HDRI at a photoshoot with a rat dompteur and discovering that rats do a better job when praised. I guess it's true... you learn something new every day.

At the photoshoot with Claude, Bryan, Owen, and Kate.

Our rats are not quite as cute and it makes no difference whether you praise them. Stay tuned for the final outcome of this mess.

July 25, 2009

It's been a while since I've had a chance to make an entry, gone subsurface to work on some cool stuff we can't talk about. Good thing there is some art out there we can talk about, like this incredibly precise 4D installation, my friend Aurelio shared with me...

MICHAEL TOMPERT, CGI ARTIST

Triggered in 2006 by graphic designer and CGI artist Michael Tompert, Raygun Studio has since grown to a collective of curious and like-minded artists, who have perfected the art of raytracing in these last ten years.
Raygun’s projects reflect Michael’s designer sensibilities—delivering a memorable and strong first read to stand out on a mobile phone, yet with depth and layers of complexity revealed when closing in on a 20-foot tradeshow display.
Creating one-of-a-kind iconic images and motion for some of the world’s most influential and interesting brands have repeatedly earned the studio a place in Luerzer’s ‘200 Best Digital Artists in the World’.